A Good Day

This afternoon two brilliant, funny and inspiring women sat at my dining room table and took the first steps in manifesting big things. While they planned, I baked cookies. (They were chocolate chip cookies and at this moment they are being devoured by my son's Cub Scout pack.) It was a very good day.

I've been on an interesting journey since my last post and was very happy to have a good day.

The ladies in my dining room this afternoon were life coach Anne Gregson and freelance writer Beti Spangel, who were the facilitators of the amazing Adirondack Women's Empowerment Retreat which took place this past January 20th - 22nd. I was there, teaching yoga classes and helping our friend Kim in the kitchen. I was blessed to be able to watch the weekend unfold. Twelve special women came together and, guided by Anne and Beti, experienced some truly transformational moments. I was blown away by their strength, optimism and openness. I was also very impressed with Anne and Beti, both of whom overcame self-doubt and fear and together created something magical.

I came home from the retreat feeling like I was standing on top of a mountain. A few days later I started to slide down the other side.

It's all physical stuff. And it's stuff that's way too personal to get into here. Suffice it to say that there is a doctor and there is a treatment that may or may not work but in the meantime is making me feel yucky. And I may or may not have had a stomach bug as well, but the symptoms are the same so who can tell? Oh, and my knee hurts again. I think it was just missing the attention.

What does all this mean? It means I haven't been training. Not at all. My treadmill is getting dusty. I am six weeks from my first race of 2012 - a local 5K - and I'm not sure I can run three miles right now. But I'm getting better. Today I didn't feel sick, part of the reason for the good day. So there's hope that I will be training again soon.

Meanwhile, I've done some other stuff.

I'd been enjoying participating in 31 Days of Adventure until the ickiness started. Then I enjoyed seeing where others went with it.

I watched Solitaire, a really beautiful and awe-inspiring movie about backcountry skiing. Then I added visiting Patagonia to my bucket list.

I created a new page in the visual journal I started a year ago during the Inside Out e-course.

I worked with Anne (she's my life coach) on some things I'd been putting off, like conquering the big pile on my desk. It was scary, but I did it and it was satisfying to see the top of my desk again.

Once my desk was clean the rest of the house fell in line. Which left me with time to bake. Today's cookies were a deviation from the pie-baking roll I've been on. I'm determined to perfect my pie crusts. And I can't forget the biscuits. The other day I made biscuits that came out of the oven three inches high and incredibly flaky. My pastry knife is getting a workout, even if I'm not.

When I'm baking I feel totally at home in the kitchen. And I feel creative and powerful. So could there be a better thing to do when two other creative and powerful women are in my dining room putting their heads together to find ways to help other women feel creative and empowered in their own lives? 

Besides, we think better with cookies. Especially if they're chocolate chip.

Must Bake Cookies

Image via Wikipedia

In last week's post I admitted that I was on a bit of a baking kick. That might have been a slight understatement. I'm in a baking frenzy. Maybe the snow flurries coming down outside are making it feel like the holidays and that's why I can't seem to bake enough cookies lately. Unfortunately I'm also eating the cookies, so I'll have to keep running on the treadmill.

My baking frenzy is not completely out of control. I have one rule that I've been sticking to - I can only bake with the supplies I have in the house. After cleaning out my cabinets I discovered I've amassed a collection of gluten-free flours and other starches, as well as doubling up on things like baking soda because one box got buried near the back of the shelf. So all this baking is also helping to clean out the cupboards and use up things that might go to waste if left sitting too long.

Thanks to Google, I've been able to find recipes that use only what I had on hand, although I had to adapt some.

Beth Hyzy's blog Delicious Inspiration provied a great gluten-free sugar cookie recipe for Halloween. I had some Halloween-colored sugar and sprinkles, so I used them rather than icing the cookies. The unflavored gelatin means these cookies are not technically vegetarian, but they were really good so I decided to let that go.

I found a recipe for peanut butter and oatmeal cookies that sounded yummy, but when I checked the peanut butter jar it was pretty low. I replaced the peanut butter with cashew butter and the pecans with coconut and they came out great! I think they might be my favorite cookies (until another really good cookie comes along).

A couple of weeks ago I bought a bag full of lemons and didn't use as many as I thought I would. I didn't want the lemons to go bad, so I went hunting for a lemon cookie recipe. Bonnie's blog Bake This. Eat That. Then Move! (Bonnie is my kind of gal)  had a great recipe for Gluten-free Lemon Cookies with White Chocolate. I didn't have any white chocolate chips, so, since I'm not buying anything, I made the cookies without them. They are still good. I drizzled them with a powdered sugar and lemon juice icing to make them extra lemony.

In another burst of productivity I recorded a new podcast yoga class. Since Thanksgiving is almost here and I've been eating all those cookies, I decided to do a core-focused practice. If you've been eating cookies too, grab your mat and click the play button.

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Even if my cookie baking frenzy continues through the holidays, I have Kim's amazing and very healthy cooking to look forward to at the Adirondack Women's Empowerment Retreat in January. You could join us there. All the details are here.

Tending the Hearth

Image via WikipediaIn the Greek pantheon, Hestia is the most grounded of all the gods and goddesses. She is the goddess of the hearth, which represents the center of the home, domesticity and family. While her immortal brothers and sisters played with lightning, broke hearts and toyed with humankind, Hestia sat on a wooden stool and never let the home fire go out.

I am not always as grounded as Hestia. Sometimes I'm not even close. I go through phases, sometimes lasting for months, when I feel that taking care of the house will get in the way of all the other things I need to be doing - from planning yoga workshops to writing blog posts to workouts.

A few weeks ago one of those phases came to an end, and with the end came a new realization. To snap myself out of my anti-housework mindset, I took a good look at what I was expecting myself to do every day. Then I shortened the list to something much more reasonable.

Guess what I discovered! If I stick with my realistic list and keep up with the house, I have more time. Crazy, right?

I'm back to regular morning workouts. I've been able to clean some of those "I'll never get that clean because I don't have the time" things. I've been reading the personal trainer manual again (I am determined to take that test before a full year passes from when I got the materials). I've organized my pantry, refrigerator and freezer and I have actually been cooking the food we have instead of buying more. (In other news, I've been cooking!)

And I'm baking.

Baking is the activity that most grounds me. But I can't bake in a kitchen where I have to dig for a bit of counter space. Having room to set up my mixer or roll out cookies is essential. An uncluttered counter calms me. Being able to decide to bake and get right to it, without having to tackle a mess first makes my heart sing.

Maybe preheating the oven isn't exactly the same as tending the hearth, but I feel very connected to Hestia when I bake. Producing cakes, cookies, brownies or bread feels like making something very solid, very real. Having all of the ingredients on hand means having enough. To bake is to celebrate abundance.

Wednesday night my son's Cub Scout leader called and said we had to bring snacks to tonight's meeting. Today I baked snicker doodles and peanut butter cookies. Half are going to the meeting. Some are in a container for family snacks. And some went into my newly cleaned and organized freezer, because you never know when you might need a cookie.

Vegan, Gluten Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (Oh my)

Maybe because my grandparents were wonderful bakers, or maybe because I spent my high school years working in a bakery, I love to bake. There's nothing like the smell that comes from the oven when cookies are baking, especially during the cold months. When I discovered that wheat gluten contributed to the aching in my joints I cried over the loss of baked goods. Luckily there are lots of gluten free recipes out there to try. I also have a problem with my cholesterol, so now my experiments are vegan as well as gluten free.

There is a bit of a learning curve, I'm finding. I've scoured a few attempts out of my baking pans before throwing the recipe away. (Wasting rather expensive gluten free flour kills me, but sometimes there is no choice.)

Today's experiment was a success! These vegan, gluten-free oatmeal chocolate chip cookies were so good I thought I'd share the recipe with you. I adapted the recipe from an oatmeal cookie recipe from Bob's Red Mill.

Vegan, Gluten Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup Earth Balance or other vegan margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup turbinado (raw) sugar
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed combined with 6 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon gluten free vanilla
1 1/2 cups gluten free all-purpose baking flour (I use Bob's Red Mill because that's what the local grocery store carries)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon Xantham Gum
3 cups gluten free rolled oats
1 cup dairy-free chocolate chips*

Preheat oven to 350F. Beat margarine and sugars together until smooth. Let flaxseed and water sit at least 1 minute, then add flaxseed mixture and vanilla and beat well. In a separate bowl, blend flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and Xantham Gum. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and blend. Stir in oatmeal and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 - 12 minutes or until golden brown on edges. Cool 1 minute before transferring to wire rack. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

* I use Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips, which do not have any dairy ingredients but are not "dairy-free" because they made in a facility where milk is present. If you have a sensitivity to dairy, look for a true dairy-free brand.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe.